What is the minimum wage and how much is it?

The minimum wage for workers aged 23 and over will rise from £9.50 to £10.42 an hour in April.

The increase to the National Living Wage will boost the pay of about two million people.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the 9.7% increase as part of his Autumn Statement, to help workers cope with rising prices.

There are lower rates of pay for younger workers.

The minimum wage – known officially as the National Living Wage – varies depending on the age of the employee.

From 1 April 2023, the increases will be:

The apprentice rate applies to people aged under 19, or people over 19 in the first year of their apprenticeship.

The minimum wage is the same across all parts of the UK.

The UK national minimum wage sets out the lowest amount a worker can be paid per hour by law.

The retail, care and hospitality sectors account for a large number of minimum-wage jobs, although they are found in many other parts of the economy too.

Any employer not paying the minimum wage can be fined by the UK tax authority, HMRC.

If you think you should be getting the minimum wage and aren’t, you can complain via the HMRC website. You can also get advice from the Acas website or by calling its helpline on 0300 123 1100.

The rates are decided each year by government and based on the recommendations of an independent advisory group, the Low Pay Commission.

It bases its recommendations on the state of the economy, and considers how many people are in work, what’s happening to everyone’s earnings and how much they are having to pay for essentials such as food and housing.

People who don’t qualify include the self-employed, company directors, volunteers, members of the armed forces, prisoners and people living and working in a religious community.

People with disabilities or those in long-term unemployment who take part in a government work programme are paid fixed amounts at different stages of the programme, which are less than the minimum wage.

Work done by prisoners is paid at a minimum of £4 a week, while students on work placements of less than a year as a required part of their studies are not entitled to be paid anything.

The law to introduce the minimum wage was passed in 1998 by the Labour government and it came into force the following year.

It started at £3.60 for those 22 and older, and £3.00 for 18-21 year olds.

Before the minimum wage was introduced, the lowest-paid people consistently saw the slowest growth in their wages.

The introduction of the minimum wage reversed this trend, according to the Low Pay Commission.

Before the minimum wage was introduced, there was concern that it would cost jobs, because employers would compensate for their higher wage bill by hiring fewer people.

But this didn’t turn out to be the case.

There’s no evidence of an overall loss of jobs linked to the minimum wage, and only weak evidence of negative impacts on some groups of workers.

More than 300,000 workers benefit from the voluntary “Real Living Wage”, which is set by the Living Wage Foundation charity.

It’s above the level of the legal minimum wage, reflecting what the charity thinks people need to earn to cover everyday needs.

It is now £11.95 per hour in London, and £10.90 per hour elsewhere in the UK.